Hundreds mourn three teens slain in Argentina middle school

Associated Press

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, September 30, 2004

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - Hundreds of mourners marched in a southern Argentina funeral cortege Wednesday for two of the three students gunned down by their teenage classmate in the nation's worst school shooting.

Weeping classmates of a girl and a boy slain during Tuesday's fusillade joined relatives behind a motorcade that slowly carried the caskets to the municipal cemetery in Carmen de Patagones in a remote corner of Buenos Aires province.

The third victim, a teenage girl, was buried later in a ceremony at a private cemetery.

The city of 25,000, perched at the gateway to windswept Patagonia 610 miles south of Buenos Aires, was rattled Tuesday by crackling gunfire that killed three students and wounded five others at the Islas Malvinas Middle School No. 2.

Police said the suspect showed up before the teacher arrived in class, drew his gun and started shooting about 7:30 a.m., firing bursts from a 9 mm handgun as students hid under their desks. A 15-year-old classmate of the victims was arrested. Police said they had no apparent motive.

Why social media threats against NorCal schools are tough for police to deal withKCRA

QRT aims to get people into recovery fasterWLWT

Investigation continues after Sacramento police shoot, kill manKCRA

The suspect was detained at a juvenile center for psychiatric testing.

President Nestor Kirchner declared two days of national mourning, and a media debate raged about violence in the nation's classrooms. Some drew comparisons to the 1999 massacre at Columbine High in Littleton, Colo., and other U.S. school shootings.